1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to charge coupled devices and in particular to a method of tranferring charge from an element of a charge coupled device to an adjacent structure without the use of a transfer gate of a type heretofore used.
2. Description of the Prior Art
W. S. Boyle and G. E. Smith describe the basic concept of charge coupled semiconductor devices (hereinafter referred to as "CCD") in an article published in the April 1970 Bell System Technical Journal, page 587, entitled "Charge Coupled Semiconductor Devices". As discussed by Boyle and Smith, charge coupled devices are potentially useful as shift-registers, delay-lines, and in two dimensions, as imaging or display devices.
In U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 343,759, filed on Mar. 22, 1973 by Choong-Ki Kim and Rudolph H. Dyck entitled "A Buried Channel, Charge Coupled Linear Array," now abandoned, a linear imaging array is described wherein one embodiment charge is detected in a line of light sensing elements and then transferred to two transport arrays adjacent to the imaging array by controlling the potential on transfer gates between the light sensing elements and the transport arrays. To reach the transport arrays, the charge is transferred in a direction approximately perpendicular to the linear array of light sensing elements before being read out for further processing. In the structure disclosed by Kim and Dyck, the transfer gate consumes surface area in the device and results in a layout topology which sometimes is cumbersome.